Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Fleming Rutledge
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ
The Advent season can create some challenging questions for a pastor as he prepares sermons and worship. Am I supposed to tie these readings to Christmas? If so, how? Between the last Sundays of the Church Year and the season of Advent I focus a lot of attention on Christ’s second coming. How can I do this for seven weeks without repetition?
Preaching with Power
Plough: To get us started, can you tell us about your theology and practice of preaching? Fleming Rutledge: It’s so important for people to understand that preaching the gospel requires a complete shift of categories. Preaching the gospel is not like anything else. Preaching is unto itself, because preaching is inhabited by and worked by the agency about whom we are preaching. We are not speaking under our own strength. We are not summing up our rhetorical gifts.
Lectionary essay for April 13 Passion C Isaiah 50 4 9a Psalm 31 9 16 Luke 23 1 49
They “stood at a distance, watching.” This detail in Luke’s Gospel haunts me: how Jesus’ friends and followers, including the women who have journeyed with him from Galilee, can do nothing but witness his suffering from afar. The sense of powerlessness they must feel, maybe even shame, is something we all have perhaps experienced at one moment or another. Today, we have more access than ever to witness atrocities. What does one do with such powerlessness?
We are dreamers (Psalm 126)
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. Dreams are powerful and mysterious.
Abyssinian Baptist Church welcomes dismissal of pastor candidate's discrimination suit
A federal judge has dismissed a gender discrimination lawsuit brought against Abyssinian Baptist Church by a onetime candidate to be the historic Harlem church’s senior pastor, the sole female candidate among finalists for the role. Eboni Marshall Turman, an associate professor at Yale Divinity School, filed the complaint in 2023.
Poems that help us breathe together
In her charming introduction to this anthology, US poet laureate Ada Limón suggests that poems and trees “let us breathe together.” This comment calls to mind priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “God’s Grandeur,” which notes a rejuvenating spirit infusing the world—“nature is never spent; / There lives the dearest freshness deep down things”—as well as Jesuit theologian and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s phrase “the breathing together of all things.” The anthology subtitle’s...
American hell
On April 4, 1968, hours before his assassination, from room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. phoned the office at Ebenezer Baptist Church back home in Atlanta.
Consent, outrage, and the abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk
Around ten years ago, I had the chance to interview Saadia Faruqi on the radio. She had just come out with her first book of short stories, Brick Walls: Tales of Hope and Courage from Pakistan. I really enjoyed both the book and the conversation. A couple of months later I was at a reception at a religion conference, and Saadia approached me, said hello, and thanked me again for the interview. I was so excited to meet her in person, I reached out, took her hand, and shook it warmly.
A Hebrew scholar rekindles her love for classic Bible stories
Feminist biblical scholarship, once relegated to the sidelines, is now solidly mainstream. Each year, more books, podcasts, and documentaries emerge to challenge the traditional patriarchal readings of the Bible and offer liberatory alternatives. Within such a landscape, it can be hard for a new book to stand out. But Eve Isn’t Evil is a gift.
What's the Bible for in seven words? Richard Lischer: "Revealing the God who lives"
What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page. Revealing the God who lives “What is the Bible for?” seems an extraordinarily obtuse question, as if it were a how-to book. Stand back! Herein is a word so alive with its author that it is capable of overturning every notion you ever had.
Epiphany – The Season of Glory
Christmas celebrates Christ's birth; Epiphany manifests his glory. Many of us associate Epiphany with the visit of the Magi but don't know much more about it. In this Fullness of Time volume, priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge expounds the primary biblical texts and narrative arc of the season, inviting us to discover God's glory anew.
Epiphany
"This book isn't just about Epiphany; it is filled with epiphanies. In the way only she can, Fleming Rutledge points us anew to the glory of Christ with insight after insight. Thanks to this book, even this low-church evangelical will mark Epiphany this year and, more importantly, will be reminded all year of the way God speaks to us in both the mysterious and the ordinary." "There is no one better to introduce the little-understood church season of Epiphany than Fleming Rutledge.
Fourth Week of Advent: Means of Grace
The four weeks of Advent are a time of reflection, hope, and preparation. In the spirit of this sacred season, we’re sharing weekly devotional readings from Eerdmans books each Wednesday in Advent. The reading for the fourth week of Advent comes from Fleming Rutledge and Laura Bardolph Hubers’s Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions.
Christ Came to Disarm Rebellious Sinners, But Not to Disempower Them
In any polarized situation, the overriding human tendency is to draw a line with oneself and one’s allies on the good side and the opposing party on the wicked side, with very little attempt made by either side to understand the other. As these positions harden, it becomes almost impossible to achieve the insight necessary for a breakthrough.
Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions
Today is Publication Day for Means of Grace, a weekly devotional culled from the sermons of beloved pastor and theologian Fleming Rutledge, organized according to the framework of the liturgical calendar.
Look Inside! Means of Grace — Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - EerdWord
We’re sharing this week’s devotion from Means of Grace, a devotional culled from the sermons of beloved pastor and theologian Fleming Rutledge, organized according to the framework of the liturgical calendar. Each entry, compiled and edited by Rutledge’s friend Laura Bardolph Hubers, begins with a biblical passage and ends with a short prayer.
Look Inside! Means of Grace — Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - EerdWord
We’re sharing this week’s devotion from Means of Grace, a devotional culled from the sermons of beloved pastor and theologian Fleming Rutledge, organized according to the framework of the liturgical calendar. Each entry, compiled and edited by Rutledge’s friend Laura Bardolph Hubers, begins with a biblical passage and ends with a short prayer.
Giveaway: Means of Grace by Fleming Rutledge, edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers - EerdWord
We’re giving away a free advance copy of Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions by Fleming Rutledge and edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers. This book of curated and edited sermons serves as a meaningful companion through the seasons of a spiritual journey that readers can return to year after year Rules To enter to drawing, follow @eerdmansbooks on Twitter and retweet this tweet.
The Body of Christ in an Empire of Lies
Monday, May 3, 2021 by Fleming Rutledge The combination of the coronavirus pandemic and my commitment to my husband’s needs in our seventh decade of marriage has snuffed out all my energies for sustained writing and creative thinking. Tonight, however, I feel that I must sit down and write something. We find ourselves living in an empire of lies. Indeed, we have been living in one for more than just the past four years.
Week 1: He Will Come Again in Glory
Jump to the daily reading: Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday. Sunday: In Between Today’s Reading: Revelation 1:4–9; 19:11–16; 21:1–5, 22–27; 22:1–5 Almost immediately, the opening chapter of Revelation lifts our eyes up to gaze at a glory that utterly transcends our earthly circumstances. “I am the Alpha and the Omega ... who is, and who was, and who is to come’” (1:8).
첫째 주: 그가 영광스럽게 다시 올 것입니다
일일 묵상으로 이동: | | | | | | : 그 사이에서 오늘의 말씀: 요한계시록 1:4-9, 19:11-16, 21:1-5, 22:27, 22:1-5 요한계시록의 첫 장 시작부터 성경은 이 땅에서 우리가 처한 상황을 완전히 초월하여 눈을 들어 영광을 바라보게 합니다. “나는 알파와 오메가라 이제도 있고 전에도 있었고…” (1:8). “우리를 사랑하시고 우리의 죄에서 우리를 해방하시고,” “볼지어다 그가 구름을 타고 오시리라 각 사람의 눈이 그를 보리라” (1:5, 7-8). 요한은 그리스도를 보았을 때 너무 놀라 “죽은 자 같이” (17절) 되었다고 언급하며, 그리스도에 대한 경이로운 비전을 묘사합니다. 하지만 바로 이 두 영광스러운 구절의 사이에는 우리가 쉽게 놓칠 수 있는 구절이 있습니다. 요한의 삶과 그의 서신을 받은 사람들의 삶에 대한 간략한 묘사입니다. 요한은 자신이 “예수의 환난과 나라와 참음에 동참하는 자” (9절)라고 일컬었습니다. 요한은 수감 중에 계시록을 기록했습니다.
第一周：他將在榮耀中再來
[Read in Simplified Chinese] 跳至每日閱讀: 週日 | 週一 | 週二 | 週三 | 週四 | 週五 | 週六 : 兩者之間 今日經文：啟示錄1:4-9；19:11-16；21:1-5，22-27；22:1-5 《啟示錄》的開篇幾乎立刻就讓我們抬起眼目，注視一種完全超越我們世間環境的榮耀。 “我是阿拉法，我是俄梅戛，是昔在、今在、以後永在的全能者。 ”（1:8）。 “愛我們， ...使我們脫離罪惡”的救主_將會再來_；“看哪，他駕雲降臨！眾目要看見他”（1:5，7-8）。 約翰接著描述了關於基督本人的奇妙異象——這種經歷是如此令人敬畏，以至於約翰“仆倒在他腳前，像死了一樣”（17節）。 但就在這兩段榮耀的經文中間，有一句話我們可能很容易忽略：約翰對自己的生活及其書信收信人生活的簡單描述。 約翰寫道，他是“在耶穌的患難、國度、忍耐裡一同有分” （9節）。 約翰在放逐中寫下了《啟示錄》，它在一個面臨壓力、迫害，正在受苦的教會中流傳，而在未來的幾十年中，這種迫害只會越來越嚴重。...
第一周：他将在荣耀中再来
[Read in Traditional Chinese] 跳至每日阅读: 周日 | 周一 | 周二 | 周三 | 周四 | 周五 | 周六 ：两者之间 今日读经：启示录1:4-9；19:11-16；21:1-5，22-27；22:1-5 《启示录》的开篇几乎立刻就让我们抬起眼目，注视一种完全超越我们世间环境的荣耀。 “我是阿拉法，我是俄梅戛，是昔在、今在、以後永在的全能者。”（1:8）。 “爱我们， ...
Semaine de l'Avent 1 : Il reviendra dans la gloire
Sauter à la lecture quotidienne : Dimanche | Lundi | Mardi | Mercredi | Juedi | Vendredi | Samedi : Entre-deux Lectures du jour : Apocalypse 1.4-9 ; 19.11-16 ; 21.1-5, 22-27 ; 22.1-5 Presque d’emblée, le chapitre qui ouvre l’Apocalypse élève notre regard afin qu’il contemple une gloire qui surpasse radicalement notre condition terrestre : « Je suis l’Alpha et l’Oméga… celui qui est, qui était et qui vient… » (1.8).
“Advent begins in the dark."
from “Loving the Dreadful Day of Judgment” Alone, alone, about a dreadful wood Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, Dreading to find its Father lest it find The Goodness it has dreaded is not good: Alone, alone about our dreadful wood… The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss. Was it to meet such grinning evidence We left our richly odored ignorance? Was the triumphant answer to be this? The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss. We who must die demand a miracle.
Reflections on Communist Atheism
Recently opened in Ashkhabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, near the U.S.S.R.-Iranian border, is a University of Atheism now offering a six-month course to further the spread of scientific-atheistic knowledge. Graduates are expected to continue “the struggle against religion.” The teaching content of this university is undoubtedly structured by Marx-Lenin atheistic materialism. The article on “Atheism” in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (second edition, 1950, Vol. III, pp. 347–354) surveys this theory.
A Legacy of Life
Physician Thomas Elkins discusses the impact of Baby Doe on abortion, technology, and medicine’s own shifting ethic. The University of Tennessee Medical Center is an assortment of clinics, classrooms, and research labs bound together by futuristic glass walkways strung high above downtown Memphis. Inhabited by white-smocked men and women in various stages of their professional development, it is a stunning monument to the power and prestige of medicine.
Christmas Is For Everyone
For an ancient holiday, Christmas has had a surprisingly cozy relationship with the modern world. The commercial radio age began on Christmas Eve, 1906, when "O Holy Night" was sung on the first AM radio broadcast. You could write a whole history of Christmas broadcast television, from sleepy Whoville and its Grinch to Charlie Brown specials (not to mention Gian-Carlo Menotti's NBC opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, broadcast in 1951).
Editor's Note from August 27, 1976
This article is from the August 27 1976 issue. Subscribers can read all of CT's digital archives. Letters have poured in concerning an advertisement placed in CHRISTIANITY TODAY by some evangelicals for Jimmy Carter. The magazine’s board and staff include Republicans and Democrats. We do not endorse any particular candidate. If any evangelicals want to place ads for the Republican candidate, we will accept them. We do think our readers should know what the candidates stand for.
Fleming Rutledge: Advent Begins Where Human Potential Ends
Across the Charles River from the Church of the Advent sits mighty Harvard. There, the famous psychology professor Steven Pinker thinks the world is getting better. In a recent interview, he makes the statement that, thanks to the Enlightenment and especially to science, life on earth is improving. He acknowledges that human beings “tend to backslide into irrationality,” but all in all, he thinks the data show that we’re making headway.
“Advent begins in the dark."
from “Loving the Dreadful Day of Judgment” Alone, alone, about a dreadful wood Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind, Dreading to find its Father lest it find The Goodness it has dreaded is not good: Alone, alone about our dreadful wood… The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss. Was it to meet such grinning evidence We left our richly odored ignorance? Was the triumphant answer to be this? The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss. We who must die demand a miracle.
In the Bus Station, You Fed Me
Temperatures in the Chihuahuan Desert lowlands were steadily hitting triple digits in the last days of June as a small group of Congolese men, women, and children waded into the Rio Grande in the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuña. Midway across a weary, 31-year-old man named Gauthier looked up toward the riverbank on the other side, in Del Rio, Texas. Several US Customs and Border Patrol were waiting. Waiting, he hoped, to guide him and his fellow travelers toward asylum in the United States.
The Limits of Pentecostal Women Leaders
Two weeks ago, the Assemblies of God General Council elected a woman to its executive leadership. After more than 100 years in existence, Ohio minister Donna Barrett now holds the role of Assemblies of God general secretary, the third-highest position in the denomination. In May, the Foursquare Church’s Tammy Dunahoo ran unsuccessfully for the denomination’s presidency.
The Devil Lives in the Mirror
I stood before the dazed librarian as she scanned each questionable title: The Death of Satan, I See Satan Fall Like Lighting, By Authors Possessed, the books about demons piling up before her. I remember my discomfort and lame apologies about what appeared to be a sinful attraction to evil. This was a Christian university library, after all, and I had a stack of demonic literature rising to evil proportions at the checkout counter.
Christian Intermingle: Can We Date Outside the Faith?
Type the word "dating" into your Bible search tool, and what comes up? Nothing. I remember wishing there was an entire book of the Bible dedicated to the topic when I was single, or at least a chapter. Now, I get emails from singles across the country looking for guidance on who and how to date. While many start off with intentions of finding a godly partner, with each passing year the waiting feels longer and the hoping gets harder.
This is a podcast test article
Summer Finn, a narrator tells us, Test Caption goes right here. That's right, right here. Nowhere else. is an average woman in many ways— like height and weight, though slightly above average shoe size. Yet something about her arrests men's attention. She gets an average of 18.4 double takes per day. This is, we are told, "the Summer Effect." She's the new assistant to Vance, who runs a greeting card company. Tom Hansen, one of the card writers, is struck by her presence.
This is a podcast test article
Summer Finn, a narrator tells us, Test Caption goes right here. That's right, right here. Nowhere else. is an average woman in many ways— like height and weight, though slightly above average shoe size. Yet something about her arrests men's attention. She gets an average of 18.4 double takes per day. This is, we are told, "the Summer Effect." She's the new assistant to Vance, who runs a greeting card company. Tom Hansen, one of the card writers, is struck by her presence.
How the Seeker-Sensitive, Consumer Church Is Failing a Generation
The millennial generation's much-talked-about departure from church might lead those of us over 30 to conclude that they have little interest in Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, their spiritual coming of age has coincided with many Protestant pastors relying on a consumer business model to grow and sustain their churches. This template for doing church and the millennials' hunger for authenticity has caused an ideological collision.
Keep the Easter Spirit Alive
Several years ago, when I was still living in New York, I interviewed for a couple jobs in California. At the time, my greatest hope hinged on moving to the West Coast, but as I waited, I asked God to help me rejoice, whatever the answer. One bitter cold day in January, I heard back: neither company wanted me. As I stood in my tiny kitchen, absorbing the news, I foresaw the familiar emotional spiral into which I could easily tumble. But I had pledged to rejoice.
Why ‘Being Christian Without the Church’ Fails the Good Friday Test
We Americans tend to be a sentimental people. This makes it difficult for us to look directly into the horror, shame, and degradation of a death by crucifixion. When Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son” and to John “Behold thy Mother,” we often interpret this saying of our Lord as a sentimental invitation to take good care of your mother. I am a mother, and I definitely want to be taken care of! But this is not what the Fourth Evangelist, John, wants us to understand.
‘Being Christian Without the Church’ Fails the Good Friday......
We Americans tend to be a sentimental people. This makes it difficult for us to look directly into the horror, shame, and degradation of a death by crucifixion. When Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son” and to John “Behold thy Mother,” we often interpret this saying of our Lord as a sentimental invitation to take good care of your mother. I am a mother, and I definitely want to be taken care of! But this is not what the Fourth Evangelist, John, wants us to understand.
To the Ends of the Earth: Loving Vanuatu After Cyclone Pam
When Jesus exhorted his disciples to go to “the ends of the earth,” he may very well have been referring to Vanuatu, the South Pacific island chain that was recently struck by a massive cyclone. More than 1,000 miles east of Australia and 750 miles west of Fiji, Vanuatu is a tiny nation of 83 small islands, nine active volcanoes, and over a quarter million people, the majority of whom are Christian.
Things Broke People Do
Three Her.meneutics writers reflect on the difficulty of poverty and some misguided beliefs about the poor. The Problem with Lists Caryn Rivadeneira For the longest time I wondered why God allowed me—and my family—to go broke. After so many cries for rescue, after so many laments, after so many opportunities where God could've "fixed" our financial crisis easily, but didn't, I wondered what he was up to. Wondered why he wasn't "blessing" us with financial abundance the way he had in the past.
CT Women’s Top 10 Articles of 2018
Women’s Ministry Beyond Women’s Roles Holistic discipleship views women as more than the stage of life they’re in. Prison Was My First Pulpit Linda Barkman was incarcerated after the man she lived with murdered her toddler. But she turned hardship into ministry.
Gleanings: January/February 2019
Image: John M Lund Photography Inc / Getty Evangelicals rally against religious restrictions Bulgarian lawmakers eased proposed restrictions on training, foreign funding, and missionary outreach by Protestants and other minority faiths following an evangelical outcry.
Billy Graham, Eugene Peterson, and Other Evangelicals Lost This Year
Billy Graham, Eugene Peterson, and Other Evangelicals Lost This Year Remembering Aretha Franklin, the founder of Awana, and the scholar who made missions cross-cultural.
Ahead of 2019, Bulgaria Rejects Severe Church Restrictions
Since October, Bulgarian evangelicals have protested proposed legislation that would hinder preaching, evangelizing, funding, and training by non-Orthodox minority faiths with weekly demonstrations and nationwide calls to prayer. Last Friday, its last working day of 2018, the country’s parliament finally passed the new law, without the severe restrictions opposed by Protestants along with every other faith group.
The Christmas Gift of Disequilibrium
Because we live on this side of Christmas, we want to rush to the end of the story where everything turns out okay. We miss the anxiety in a young woman's announcement, "I'm pregnant," and the tension on a man's brow as he parses the right decision. You might even be tempted to think Joseph was slow spiritually and should have figured out what was going on a lot sooner.
CT’s Top 20 News Stories of 2018
Does God talk to you? Has God punished you? Here’s how denomination, gender, and political party relate to how we see the divine.
Mankind Was Scrooge's Business (and George Bailey's, Too)
This year marks the 175th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’s “ghostly little book,” A Christmas Carol. Over the years, it has become so pervasive that even those who haven’t read this story of a miser’s redemption or caught one of the many film, stage, or television adaptations know what a “Scrooge” is, what Tiny Tim represents, and what’s so terrifying about the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Fleming
Contact Fleming, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack